Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
Worship call 1173 the fear of the Lord - 2024/11/04
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbet. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. Religion is fun and games until God shows up. And when God shows up, will He find for Himself worship within the local church? This is the second day of the week in God's created order, the fourth day of the 11th month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in Heavenly, thank you for this day. We lift up our this morning, we lift up our sister Terry and Mike as they're going through her treatment starting this week. I pray, I thank you for her courage, her strength, and I thank you, Heavenly Father, for Mike's and his support, and of his wife, and we also pray for Tim and Yvonne as they're going through their physical challenges as well. We lift them up and we pray for your healing hands to be on. I pray this morning for our study, this morning, oh, bump our hearts to the things that we continue to study in this early church, the book of Acts, in Christ name we pray. Amen. Alright, so I had a little different, just more, because I wanted to get straight to it. I woke up this morning and we had just struck me, this burst. I went last night to work a little bit on it, as I was talking back sometime, well, most of the time, I would love to do the lesson the night before and have it ready for the morning. But, you know, to say it religiously, some people say, well, God talks to me in the morning. Well, he talks to me through Scripture, but this verse woke me up this morning that we've come to, and it is Acts 5, 11. The great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things. This is after the death of Ananias and Sophia, who lied to the spirit and they dropped dead right there. I mean, this was when they heard, when this word got out, church was no, the church itself. I'm really overmodulating, apologies for that, I didn't forget something. Alright, we turned you down a little bit, there we go. When they heard about Ananias and Sophia, when this word got out, church was no game, religion was no game. This was serious, this was something for keeps, and the change began in the world with one thing. One thing began, it's one thing began, the changing of the world. The church, listen, the church changed the world as it were. The world changed not because of love, but because of the fear, fear of the Lord. And here it is that a great fear came over the world, and let's go to that passage here. Okay, great fear, and this word fear right here is the word phobos. Alright, there. Software start cooperating with me this morning. I'm going to get rid of these things over here. Put that up here, and I'll make it back. Maybe it won't make it back. Okay, phobos. And phobos, Lou and I says it is a profound respect, all for deity, reverence, all. And I, you know, on this application, I don't, you know, I didn't even put it over there. Even over there, I really don't go for this. Phobos, in the fear of the Lord, isn't just respect, isn't just about reverential awe. And we'd like to say that because we want to avoid them. We want to avoid that word fear. But we want to skirt around the word in exchange to fear for awe or reverential awe. Like there's something wrong with fearing God. And really truly, I do understand the fact that you take that love and fear are two things that it's hard to mesh together. Charlie Cough says that the opposite of love is fear. But these people, again, these people have heard, had heard of the two among their own flock who died like this and we spoke earlier that they weren't necessarily unbelievers. They may, themselves, may have been very devout. A couple amongst the church itself, amongst the church members. And God knocked them dead. And they all of a sudden realized that they were not playing religion any longer. But they were standing before a great and powerful God and God plays for keeps. And so this was a truly a fear. And that fear was not found in the world but started in the assembly of believers. Proverbs 1-7. All right, Proverbs, there we go. Proverbs 1-7. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instructions." Let's look at some of these other verses here. Job 28, 28-28. "And to the man who said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." Psalm 1-11. 1-11-10. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding to have all those who do His commandments." His praise, His praise and thirst forever. Proverbs 9-10. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom and knowledge of the only one is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied." 15-33. Proverbs. "The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom and before honor comes humility." Ecclesiastes 12-13. "The conclusion when all has been heard is fear God and keep His commandments because this applies to every person." Some say that the ugliness that we see in this world, that it has been worse. And we go on this adage. We have this adage that when we're going through rutons, well, it could be worse. It could be worse. I've talked to people that said, you know, the things that we see in the world today are not the worst things that we've ever seen in our lives. In history there has been worse. I agree. I agree. But that doesn't bring me any comfort. Because what we see now is just returning back to the way things were. Back in the time of writing, back in the time of the Romans, of the Roman days, and even prior to that, even throughout history of man, it has been hideously dark. You see, God is light. And when man seeks to distance himself from light, what do you have? When you go away from the light and God is light, what do you have? You have darkness. It's default condition. So you run away from the light, and that's what man did. You see, man, his heart is definitely wicked, and it was Adam who set the precedence on how man's heart leads him away from God. Because when sin came, and man experienced that sin and that departure from the righteousness of God, and when God approached him, man ran in hid. He hid himself from God. And sinful man is not looking for a union with God. We say, as believers, we're looking for God. No, God comes looking for you. That we don't go pursuing God as unbelievers. We're running away from God. This world is running away from God. And so sinful man was not looking for a union with God, but sought to distance himself from God. He hid himself in an ugly world which he himself had created. Even though the world hadn't fallen apart yet, and the environment hadn't filed the volition of man, it would. Man creates an ugliness within this world, and he seeks to hide himself in this world from God. He seeks to find his comfort in a world that is just desperately ugly. And so sin is the missing the mark, and it falls short from the righteousness of God. From God there came Cain. And Cain, when Cain's offering was rejected, Cain got all poochy-lipped about it. And the Lord sought, in his grace, sought to give Cain some, some a lesson. And Genesis 4-6, come on. And Genesis 4-6, let me get rid of that, and then I won't have a problem with that. There we go. Genesis 4-6, then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why is your count as fallen? If you do well, will your count be lifted up? And if you do not, do well. Sin is crouching at your door. And its desire is for you, but you must master it. And so he instructs, and Cain is crouching at our, the sin is crouching at our door. Cain rejected the Lord's counsel, and he entertained the sin within his heart, which led to murdering his brother. And onward Cain established the whole society that was contrary to God. As goes man, so goes his society, so goes the world. And then it came time for the flood, it came time for Noah. And in that time, like in the days of Noah, Genesis 6-5, then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, in that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And I used to consider this as only the Nephilim. There wasn't only the Nephilim. There was three categories of people. There was Noah and his family. There was the Nephilim, and there were those that had distanced himself from God. It says here, it didn't say the Nephilim. It says, "Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man, of man, and was great on his earth." And every intent of his thoughts in his heart was only evil continually. And again, I say when you distance yourself from God, you distance yourself from the light and therefore it leaves you in a default condition of darkness. And that's where you become subordinate to everything that's wicked and unrighteousness. So the wickedness of man was great upon this earth. And then what does the Lord do? He wipes it out. He reboots the civilization of man and we come to Genesis chapter 8 verse 21. And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma. This is Noah when he built an altar. And the Lord said to himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. And I will never again destroy every living thing as I've done." So man's heart is definitely wicked. That's what Jeremiah, 79 says, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick who can understand it. Without a connection with God, without connecting oneself with God, your spiritual life is in decayed. So you can say it's decaying. It's retrogressing. How? Reversionism. It's falling apart. Again, it's like a plant that's stuck in a room that needs light. You put it in the dark room and away from the sun and away from the nutrients, it will quickly die. Genesis 6-5, "The Lord saw the witness of man and was great on the earth and every intent of his heart was only evil continually." Psalm 51-5, "Behold, I have brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." We talk to Jeremiah 9, Romans 1-21, "For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God, or gave thanks. But they can futile in their speculation, and their foolish heart was darkened." Ephesians 3-23, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." Ephesians 2-1, and which you formally walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them too, who formerly lived in the lust of their flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children wrath even as the rest. In the whole course of the world's history, the world man has gone rogue, man who has created a relationship with the one true God has gone rogue, he has departed himself from God as far as he can get. And later God would call a man out when there was the separation of the nations, and the world was paganized, and God called one man out of the Ur of Kaldis, his name was Abram, and through that one man he created a nation. In that nation he would call out of Egypt, he called them out to set them apart from the rest of the world. They were to be a holy people, set apart from the decadence and the evil and the corruption of this world. You were to be a holy people, and we are to be a holy people as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1, that you are to be a holy people, for God is holy, set apart, set apart from this world. But when the people came out of Egypt, they faced God at the mountain, remember Mount Sinai? And the mountain was shaken and lightning and clouds and the ground was shaken, and the people were frightened. And they pleaded with Moses, he says, don't let us talk to him, don't let us see him because we are going to die. They begged Moses to be a mediator. You tell us what he says, they were fearful. You talk to him and we will obey. They pledged obedience to this God in which they feared, so far so good. But that fear wore off. And they began to join in with worshiping other gods. And they were as bad as he could get and still be breathing air without God crushing them. It went down through a total disrespect from life. Remember what Jesus said, anyone does anything to these little ones, may a millstone be tied around their necks and thrown into the sea. Well, guess what, they didn't see it as literal because that's what they were doing. These people, even God's people were sacrificing their own children. They were caught up in sexual perversion while they were participating in orgies. They were at the same time listening to the streams of their children who were being tortured as they were being burnt on the altar by all. Pidious, ugliness. And if we could see that, if the cameras of our news agencies could see what these people were done in living color. Oh man, we would despise Israel. But God's covenant goes on. Let's look at 2 Kings 17. I'm going to read from 29 to 34 on this one. It says, "But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in their houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made. Every nation in their cities in which they lived. The men of Babylon made sakut. Benok, the men of kut, made Nagal, and the men of Hamat made Ashima. And the Avites made Nebhaz and Tartak. And the Separites burned their children. Look at the Separites, burned their children in fire to Adramalek. They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places who acted for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the Lord and served their own gods. See, there is contradiction there is what it's talking about. They feared Yahweh and then they served their own gods according to the customs of the nation among whom they had been carried away in exile. To this day they do according to the earlier customs. They do not fear the Lord nor do they follow their statues or the ordinances or the law or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob who he named Israel. With whom the Lord made a covenant and commanded them saying you shall not fear the other gods nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and without stretched arm him you shall fear and to him you shall bow yourselves down and to him you shall sacrifice. The statues and the ordinance and the law and the commandments which he wrote for you you shall observe to do forever and you shall not fear other gods. Could that be any planer? But the people were sacrificing their own children, their own babies on altars while they were practicing sexual perversions. Israel was a preceding nation. It is through this nation that there were others, a preceding nation was one who represented God to man. And there were those pagans, there were those Canaanites who just by example we have Rahab and you have Ruth both a non-Israel who threw that nation. God can know the God of that nation. You had Rahab and Rahab was the harlot. She's the one who had the sparks and she certainly had a fear of the Lord. Now before they lay down talking about the spies here she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, "I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land had melted away before you." For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water, the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings, the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan and Shegon and Ah and whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you for the Lord your God. He is God in heaven and above and on earth. And that was the harlot Rahab and then the great grandmother of King David who was a Moabitus. And Ruth and I love this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible about Ruth said I do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you for where you go. I will go where you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people and your God my God. So through the testimony of God of Israel kings were converted. The world was changed. No what we see here today is bad. It is very extremely bad and what we see in our culture today. But you know what and we say we might say it's you know what's happening to our world. It's changing in the evil and we talk of evil as it's something new. No it wasn't. And where I'm going with all this is back prior to the church. This world was as ugly as it could be and we would and we would think that we were a bunch of saints today compared to it. That they were still that they were abandoning their children they were throwing them out in the garbage heap because they just didn't want them. There was there was there was sent from every sexual sins the abominations the the the the temple prostitutes. You name it everything goes because there was no boundaries on sin. And so what's become of our world is this when the church began it began with the fear of the Lord right here. There was a fear of God this this this is not just playing God this is not just playing religion here. This was for keeps and their fear was the the fear of the Lord motivated them to to do the commandments of God. And and doing the commandments of God led from fear to obedience to a genuine love for the Lord. And that love was expressed by the by the being holy again Peter says be holy not and that's set apart from the world. They didn't do things that the world they did things that was set apart from it they didn't look to to for outreach so they could look like the world and be like the world and sing like the world and be everything like the world so they can bring the world in. No they were set totally apart it changed the world. It turned the world upside down everything that was the church again that early church started with fear of the Lord. And and I'm talking about fear the the the terror of the Lord. And it motivated adjustment and with that fear coming to coming to a bow I need to the one you fear and then as you fear him as you begin to know the one that you fear you begin to recognize his grace and his mercy. You recognize who he is his love his justice his righteousness that fear again crafted into obedience and then into a genuine love. John says that that that true love perfected love completed love cast out fear because fear involves judgment. And the fact is but but over course of the period of time and you might say what happened to the world no the that's not the question the world has always been the question. It is what happened to the church because the the governing influence that changed the world was within the church. The church that was being set apart the church that was God God using as as the conduit of blessing to the world. And when the church straight away from God God when the church set aside his word. When the church became religious when the church began to in when the church had lost its fear of God. It also lost its love for God. It gained a familiarity with God God my co-pilot God the man upstairs. And when our churches began not a place of assembling together in complete reverence to the to true living God. But they came to worship their church and to worship their altars and to worship their programs and to worship everything. And and then when it came to the Word of God it gave about a 10 or 15 minute. You know wash wash down sermon because they certainly would not want to bore their the people who give who put money in the collection plates that they would leave. What happened to the world is when the church stopped loving God. What happened to the world is when the church stopped fearing God. It's like a pot of water. When the world was as pagan as it could be. It was like a pot of water sent upon the flame. And over a period of time that water would change and it would heat up and it would boil. And as long as the water stayed upon that fire you know that water would be boiling. Take the water off of the flame and cools back down to what it was before. The flame was the church. The flame was the the flame was a church that feared God. And when the church losses fear God it took the world is reverting back to what it was before. So can it be worse you see some people say that it can be worse. Well what fears and what scares me is the fact that it is. It is going back to as bad as it was before. The ugliness of this world as ugly as it is is going worse. And until the church finds its way back to fear God. Then we will see the worst that we say it could be. Father in heaven thank you for this opportunity this morning fellowship in your word. Thank you for the truth and I pray Heavenly Father within our hearts. May we come to know thee. To fear thee, may that fear lead us to obedience to thee. And may that obedience and which part of obedience is to come to know you through your word. And through that come to a genuine love for thee which casts out that fear. And may we not lose that. May we not lose the vision of who and what you are and which is greater than anyway. Let us serve. Let us understand that we serve a big God. A fearful God but yet a loving God. Let us serve thee these things in Christ's name. Amen. Alright so not a five day in the Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, will and spirit God in rapture pain and we will be back here in the A.M. You can hear this message again as well as previous lessons. And get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Many seek comfort from thinking, "It can be worse." and they say that the cultures were far worst in earlier times. well what changed the world, and is the world on the path to the worse?